149th Limerick Regatta set to take place this weekend

The 149th Limerick Regatta will be held on Saturday, April
27th in the picturesque village of O’Briensbridge, Co. Clare.

The regatta committee, made up of the 6 Limerick based clubs, will welcome 26 clubs from all over Ireland and this year will also welcome visiting Masters crews from West Point Rowing Club USA.

The regatta racing is over 4 lanes and a course of approximately 1,500m. Regatta racing starts at 9:00am and runs through to 6:30pm and the packed schedule will see a race starting every 4 minutes. A total of 415 crews will be competing in events from Junior 14 through to Senior and Masters.

Race highlights include:

The Women’s Senior 2x- event will see a composite junior crew of Chris Kirwan of St Michael’s race with Grace Healy of Commerical. This junior double have been selected to compete for Ireland in the Coupe de la Jeunesse (European Junior Championships) which is being held in Italy in July.

Local clubs UL, Shannon, Athlunkard, Castleconnell and St Michael’s will all be taking part with large entries in the junior sections. There’s 15 crews entered in the relatively new octuplet categories for Junior 14 and 15 which is big entry for the larger boats.

The Men’s Senior 4- will see UL race against St Michael’s in a local derby. UL will be looking to get race experience clocked up as they will be completing in the rescheduled University Championships which were cancelled in the Lough Rynn course earlier this month.

It’s Galway v’s Limerick in the MJ18 8’s race as Shannon and St Michael’s are up against Colaiste Iognaid, St Joseph’s and CRCC who all hail from Galway. With 5 crews entered in a 4 lane course it means a 3 boat heat with 2 to qualify and a two boat race with just one to qualify for a 3 boat final.

There’s big entries in the junior sculling events with time trails being run and the top 4 boats from the time trails will make up the finals.

Spectators can walk from the village all the way to the
regatta start line with plenty of view points along the racing course.
Castleconnell BC will be catering the event as a fundraiser with hot food and
drinks being served throughout the day.

The racing season had already been hit with a number of
cancellations due to adverse weather, most recently the University and Schools
championships which were being held in Lough Rynn for the first time. Racing
had to be abandoned after just a few races.

The Limerick Regatta committee are hoping the weather stays
in favour so that another fantastic event can be run on their stretch of the
River Shannon. They are looking forward to welcoming the visiting clubs,
supporters and the public to the event. More details can be found on twitter
via @limerickregatta and via Facebook –
www.facebook.com/Limerick-Regatta and live results will be available
also.